Lancaster

July 27 - August 2, 2000

Ahhhhh... home sweet home. A much needed week of healing from the infamous amoeba and catching up on relaxing. When I wasn't busy sleeping and eating, I was either lounging in the hot tub or surfing the web for free ;). There really is no place like home. Just as I was getting comfortable sinking deep into the fluffy chair, some talk about a couple sidetrips arose. A weekend in vegas with some pals from good ol CMI in SB, and a week of fishin' on a lake up in the great white north (Canada) with my Uncle Larry. Well, somehow I managed to wrangle up a last minute round trip ticket to LA through priceline.com for $200, vegas here I come.

Las Vegas

August 3, 2000

Well, a good deal isn't always a good deal. The flight to LA was cancelled because of bad weather in Philadelphia. After spending an hour on the 'red line' with the kind folk of Northwest Airlines, they managed to find me a flight to LA through Vegas, something they 'normally won't do for priceliners'. The lady definately went out on a limb for me and I thanked her. After 2 hours of further delays, the plane took off, with a beautiful air approach into the city of lights just after 1am. There I stand, a day early in the Vegas International airport, what to do? Well all the big hotels were booked, and besides I could never afford their $150 per night pricetag so I wandered the streets looking for a bush to sleep under. While walking I ran into a Franklin Miles of Oklahoma, on his way to Alaska to work on the fishin' boats. He heard they make good money, so he got on his battery powered skateboard and headed out. Luckily, he knew of a cheap hotel in town (the Happi Inn) across from the Luxor where he spent an hour sweet talking the lady at the front desk into giving us a room, 2 nights for $62. I slept like a rock.

August 4, 2000

Woke up early, headed over to the Luxor in anticipation of my pals arriving later in the day. Spent the morning gambling Gai Pow style, and from 11 to 6 I turned $40 into $80 and then quickly back to $20. Eventually Roger, Ashkan, and Leanne arrived and lady luck helped to turn that $20 into $120 for a net gain of $80. Happy Daryl. We strolled around town for hours and eventually met up with Lance and Nancy. Later in the evening we returned to gambling and I quickly flushed that $80 down the drain at the blackjack tables. Seeing a trend develop, I made my way back to the Pai Gow tables and recovered $20 for a total daily profit of $20 and a few slices of pizza. It sure is great to see everyone. Back at the hotel I was suprised by 7 guests of Franklin, a group that apparently had trouble with their van and needed a place to stay. 4 kids (Gabriel 12, Melanie 7, Elaina 6, Nicholas 4) and parents Ron and Diane with a scraggly Uncle Ray tagging along. As long as my corner of the bed remained free, I couldn't have cared less.

August 5, 2000

At 10am Franklin left to 'get the money he owed me for the room' and stuck me with the gang. Eventually they left, never to be seen again ofcourse, sticking me with the room bill and $8 I gave them to get breakfast. No suprise there. I made my way over to the Luxor, met up with the gamblin' gang and spent the remainder of the day at the Pai Gow tables effectively losing all I had won the day before and another $40. We all went to dinner at the Red Square, where they serve a wicked martini. The remainder of the evening was spent gambling on mechanical ponies where I spent another $40 to gain $60 for a net loss of $20 for the weekend.

August 6, 2000

Half the gang left before sunbreak in a styleless attempt to 'beat the heat' on the drive home. The more adventuresome folk; Nancy, Lance, & I eventually rolled outta bed at noon for an afternoon of 'Fly Away' indoor skydiving before heading out. Indoor skydiving consists of floating on a 120mph column of air generated by an airplane propeller in what is appropriately known as a verticle wind tunnel. It kicks ass! I had a blast pulling off all my skydiving tricks; standup, flips, twists, and a headdown that almost had me down. The officials weren't too happy about that move and made sure I was properly reprimanded for it. 'Don't ever do those tricks in here again' the tunnel weenie said. 'Sure' I said with a grin stretching from cheek to cheek on my face. On the way home we stopped at the 'Famous Greek' for lunch in Death Valley, the hottest spot on earth and too prove it, home of the world's largest thermometer. We all placed our bets on the temperature. Nancy won with a guess of 113. It was 117.

August 7, 2000

Back in good ol' Santa Barbara. Other then reschedule my return flight for the 9th rather then tomorrow (another thing they 'normally don't do for priceliners'), I really didn't do anything today. Oh, Nancy and I setup a hummingbird feeder and strummed guitar waiting for the new birds to settle in.

August 8, 2000

Spent the night at 'The Ranch' (Joe's place) and dug my car outta storage for the day. Other then a dead battery, I really had no trouble. Infact, it seemed to run better then when I put it into storage. Gave it a good washing and put a can of fuel stabilizer in the tank. Took care of some chores in the afternoon, taking my travel film to get developed and checking in on the hovercraft which for sure has been badly neglected (Ruppert? Blaine?). I toured around CMI and spent hours catching up with old friends and foe. A group of us met downtown for a grand and entertaining dinner at 'The Piranha' sushi restaurant. It sure does feel good to see everyone again. Put the car back in storage and packed up for my trip home.

August 9, 2000

I gotta give grand thanks to Nancy for getting me to LAX by noon. Unfortunately, I don't share the same gratitude for Northwest Airlines, as it wasn't until 3am that I arrived back in PA following both cancelled and delayed flights due to airplane maintenance. Needless to say my mom had enough of the waiting game and left the airport, arranging a ride home for me with some strangers from Harrisburg also waiting for their son. She said 'Just look for the guy with the guitar'. Thanks to Baby Taylor, they found me and I found my way home.

August 10 - 13, 2000

Another 3 days of web updates and hot tubbing in between preparations for my fishing trip to Canada. I really like the looks of that new Canon Sureshot S100 digital camera... hmmm...

Canada

August 14, 2000

John had me outta bed at 8 (the crack of dawn) and we were on the road by 9. By 4 I was taking pictures of a big red maple leaf. No we aren't carrying narcotics... no we don't have any firearms... welcome to Canada. For sure the easiest border crossing this side of Mexico. Fresh air and a beautiful countryside, scattered with lakes and forest. We passed up on the fresh blueberry and syrup stands and headed straight for 'The Beer Store' for a case of Labatts Blue, from which we continued on to our Tumblehome Lodge on Crotch Lake (no joke), home of the grissly Walleye. Not more then 1 hour after my pack hit the ground, so did I. Lights out. Tomorrow will be a good day for fishin'.

August 15, 2000

The rest of the crew (Uncle Larry, George, Dave, Cousin LauraLynn, and kids Zachary and Ally) greeted me to the lake by dragging my sorry ass outta bed at 8 and into the pontoon. With captain Dave at the helm, we quickly found our way to the 'A-1 fishin hole'. The conditions, adverse and windy. The rig, lightweight fiberglass rod with 8lb test, a #4 hook, and leeches (better bait then bananas). The fish, I sadly outperformed all other fishermen by pulling in a dozen assorted rockbass, smallmouth bass, and perch. With the trophy fish of the day being an 18" 2.5lb smallmouth. The fisherman talk was both fierce and ruthless as it should be. The daily schedule looked something like: breakfast, fish, lunch, fish, dinner, fish, a few games of 'Spat', sleep. 'Spat' is a card game originating somewhere in the mountains of West Virginia, where you take turns trying to form the best 3 card flush. You take turns drawing from either the deck or the discard pile, and when you think you got everyone licked you bang on the table, give everyone one more round and then show yer cards. The loser then puts a quarter of 3 into the center and whoever has the last quarter wins it all. Oh, and if you have a perfect hand of an ace and two tens you say 'spat' and everyone has gotta pay. After a few games I was up $3 and everyone retired to bed. Not a bad day at all.

August 16, 2000

Another good day. Three 15" 2lb bass and $5 at the card table. Took a hike in the woods and picked a bag of wild blackberries.

August 17, 2000

Another day of winning at cards and catching the victory fish. Walleye sure is tasty.

August 18, 2000

Guess what I did today? Yep, more cards and fishin'.
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